The Nutcracker : Live At The Ellie Caulkins Opera

The Overture 1812 ("1812") was composed in 1880 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the most famous of all Russian composers and perhaps best-loved for his ballet

The concert was very good overall. I am not interested in the classical music concert, but this concert made me thing different towards the classical concerts. Also I learned about the instrument called organ, very interesting instrument. I strongly recommend going to the organ concert. Especially if Dr. Carol Williams and Martha Jane Weaver are starring, you should definitely attend. No regret

    The original story of The Nutcracker started with ETA. Hoffmann’s 1816 tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King that had been adapted by Alexandre Dumas in 1844 about a girl who befriends a nutcracker on Christmas Eve and battles against the evil Mouse King (Schwarm). In 1892, the director of the Russian Imperial Theatre, following the success of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, devised the ballet, setting ito Tchaikovsky’s music with choreography by Marius Petipa, and premiering it a week before Christmas (Burton-Hill). Tchaikovsky first accepted the task to write the music from the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky (History of The Nutcracker). He began to work while on an American tour for the opening of Carnegie Hall. His tour took him through Paris, where he discovered a new instrument: the celesta. It had a clear, bell-like tone that was perfectly fitted to be the “voice” of his Sugar Plum Fairy. He immediately wrote to his publisher, asking that the instrument be

On July 31st, 2015, at Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra: Mozart and Brahms took place. The performers for that evening were Jeremy Denk, the pianist and Louis Langrée as the conductor. The performances that were played that night were Chaconne in D minor for piano left hand by composer Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Symphony No. 4 in E minor by composer Johannes Brahms. The symphony was excellent in my opinion. The first performance, Chaconne in D minor for piano left hand wasn’t my favorite one but the last two were spectacular. It was the first time I’ve been to a classical music concert and it was a different

On November 25, 2017 I attended The Nutcracker ballet performance at the Eisemann Center. The dance was adapted from a story by E.T.A Hoffman with the music by Tchaikovsky. The show was a faithful adaptation of The Nutcracker with the dancers, costumes, sets, and Tchaikovsky’s music all playing an integral part in depicting the story in an entertaining way. Overall, the presentation was successful in portraying the holiday classic that is The Nutcracker, and the majestic sets and costumes along with the music allowed for sustained attention and spectacle that was still true to the narrative of The Nutcracker. The production did this by having grand, bright costumes and sets that resembled the time period of The Nutcracker and depicted the setting of the dances, the original music by Tchaikovsky which was able to produce the emotions that come with the story, and lighting techniques that showed the weather and time of day which helped show what scenes were being told throughout the performance.

The first concert I attended was performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra had performed Shostakovich’s “Symphony NO. 7, Leningrad” from the Romantic era. The orchestra was a large ensemble (1) containing various instruments that contributed to the overall sound of the piece. Since the orchestra was a large ensemble, just like the instrumentation common in the Romantic era, the orchestra was able to perform in a lively, vigorous manner, probably vivace (2). The orchestra performed tutti

I especially liked, Spring: Overture for Wind Orchestra, because of the rapid and dance-like scene. In addition, I was impressed with the orchestra’s ability to perform so favorably with the brilliant soprano soloist. My least favorite performance of the evening was Danceries. The beginning was enjoyable but it quickly shifted to excessive refrains and distorted structure of instruments. After hearing these independent pieces I was able to comprehend and respect the talent of the performers of Bob Jones University’s music division. Overall, the musicians performed an excellent concert and left a lasting impression on

However at last, I had the chance to listen to orchestra concert from the front row seats with my family

The concert I attended was called the Faculty and Student Recital, which took place in the Cisco Auditorium on April 11, 2017. The music that was on the program was mostly what is called “classical” music, as well as a Chinese Folk Song, an electronic composition, and variations on an Indian Tala. In the classical pieces, the instruments that were used were the violin, the piano, the cello, and the oboe. In the electronic composition, the computer was used to make music. In the Chinese Folk Song, the piccolo was used to imitate the unique timbre of a Chinese flute. In the Indian tala, drums from Ghana were used to imitate the rhythm and sound of Indian drums. The piano, the violin, the cello, and the piccolo all originate

Tchaikovsky wrote The Nutcracker at the request of the Director of the Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhskii (Poznansky, 2012). The Nutcracker is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fairy tale, of which Tchaikovsky was fond of. However he did not like using The Nutcracker for a ballet scenario. The ballet tells the story of a young girl, Clara, who is given a nutcracker for Christmas. Clara then falls asleep and dreams the nutcracker fights an evil mouse king. The nutcracker then turns into a prince and takes her to a land of snow, where he tells her the story of the battle with the army of mice. She does several dances for the Prince to celebrate his triumph in battle. She then awakens and learns it was all just a dream (Green, n.d.). The Nutcracker was

My first concert experience turned out to be very different from what I expected. Even though I would not choose to listen to classical music normally, the concert has made me enjoy this type of music more and made me think about how much more there is to music than just lyrics and a

The composer of the Nutcracker is Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky. Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in Vyatka, Russia. Tchaikovsky was the 2nd oldest child in his family out of 6 children. When Tchaikovsky was 5 he began taking his first piano lessons. When he was 10 he went to the Imperial School of Jurisprudence which was a very prestigious school for boys located in St. Petersburg, Russia. At age twenty-one he decided to take lessons at the Russian Musical Society, it was here that he became one of the first composing students. Tchaikovsky’s first public performance was in 1865. His first well received symphony was in 1865 and was called Piano Concerto No. 1. Tchaikovsky died in St. petersburg on November 6, 1893.

The performance that I attended was of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra playing the Overture to The creatures of Prometheus, by Beethoven, the Concerto for Orchestra by Kodaly, and Harold in Italy, by Berlioz. The orchestra was conducted by David Currie, and I think that they played very well overall.

The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky is another ballet that is based on a fairy tale, and was first presented to the Tsar of Russia.

The fifth and final 2017 Colorado Springs Philharmonic and Oklahoma City Ballet performance of The Nutcracker took place on Sunday, November 26, 2017, at 2:00 pm at the Pikes Peak Center. This rendition featured Conductor Thomas Wilson, Oklahoma City Ballet Artistic Director Robert Mills, the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale, and numerous student dancers from the Pikes Peak Region. Through the excellence in the music, dancing, and stage and costume design, this holiday Nutcracker performance not only captured the spirit of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s music but also conveyed the Christmas spirit as well.